Youth Solution

No one can have escaped the fact that there’s a political party conference in town. ‘Tis the season.

The chair of GMPTA used the conference to call for a national child maximum fare of 50p. The particular value was no doubt tempered by the sort of money parents state they would be prepared to pay for their child to have a seat on a dedicated, high quality bus to school – not that £1 a day covers anything like the peak operational costs, even with 70 seats.

The GMPTA idea is that young people to 16 would pay 50p, plus others to 21 in full time education.

Is there merit in this suggestion? It would certainly overcome moves such as at Nexus PTE, where child fares were threatened owing to the elderly free travel funding hole. It would certainly generate, too. Especially on longer distance journeys.

What we know from Derbyshire’s experience is that young people’s promotional fares work. In Derby, entitled young people are encouraged to continue with public transport with cheaper fares just at a time when they are thinking of driving lessons. The scheme gives a discount at the point where otherwise a child concessionaire becomes a full farepayer.

And a 50p maximum may make even more sense than the London situation, where every eligible under-19 travels on buses free. This has its problems: short stop-start hops, lack of exercise, buses full of possibly intimidatory young people, anti-social behaviour, and so on.

With a 50p fare, oe much to gain in terms of good will. The big issue is the knotty problem of reimbursement rates and generation factors. Operators already complain about the resources available to them under free travel. What chance would there be of getting a young persons’ scheme right first time?

And the second biggest issue is that such a scheme tends to reinforce the view that buses are for older and younger people only.